MariaMan

The drama that pleased both Korean and International Audiencies

-----------------⚠️ATTENTION!⚠️This review CONTAINS SPOILERS and its main purpose its to analise the story and character developement-------------
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What made me start the drama: The presence of Yook Sung Jae.
First Expectations: I was told that Sungjae would play 2 complete oposite characters and one of them was going to be the beddie...Sungaje? Baddie? Enough to make me click play.
Do I usually watch and love saeguks? Yes. Ofc. And when you combine a saeguk with fantasy,romance,comedy,ocult things,ghosts...there is just an implosion of wow happening here.

STORYwise it was not what I initially expected. I had In mind someting more like xianxia driven but in Joseon rather then Ming. However it was BETTER then expected.

I saw people here in comments being like FRIDAY: Its draggy...I am going to drop it. SATURDAY: I am back cause what the heck was that plot twist? 😂

The fact that I finally saw both audiencies finally on the same place about a drama made me genuinely happy.

This is not your usual saeguk drama. Yes it revolves around a palace, a haunted one...yes it has a king but not a normal one. A king that loves his family and puts them first. And then his duties as a king. A king that by the end even though he was not directly gulity kneeled in front of all thoes souls that perrieshed for him to even be born. A king kneeling in front of his people seeking forgivness for his ancestors, from his wife whom he could not protect and from his people promising a brighter future full of FORGIVNESS. Where profund hate will no more create aquis (evil spirits) who in turn will create a vicious cicle of crimes. A king that ruled as a human not as an almighty diety. And a king that has grown to respect the diety that create him and aknowledge he is not top of the top...a king that befriended a diety that was at the begining insufarable but at the end become his closest person. I even believe he ended up suffering more for Changchul rather then his wife.

Because Chagchul was also not a normal diety. He was a clumpsy and braggy and full of himself one. He was a diety that needed to live as a human, feel love and pain and hunger and desperation of loesing everything from a human's perspective in order to understand them. A diety that had the destiny to peace the souls he couldn't save. He embraced his destiny and save them all, and saved his all, which was Yeori. He also lost his brother Bibi in the way but It was his Karma for not hearing the prayers of the needed when he was send back to Earth. Because he freed everybody from Palcheokwi he was given a choice: to ascend as he always wished or to go back on earth...and he once again embraced his imperfactions and choose to go back to his half human life and this time use his powers when needed. And the most beautifull gift he recieved in the end was his ABSOLUTE MINI MATCH. 😂 Ga Eon is 100% HIS daughter. I wish we had one more special episode at least to see his family finally happy.

This story followed closely the "en eye for en eye" premise seeking the ultimate forgivess and the braking of the bad cicle. Everybody recieved more or less what they deserved. I DESAGREE with some people saying that the finale was draggy and rushed and boaring...it was the most entrateining part. I even heared they had a problem with the fighting scenes. BUT this is not your usaul saeguk in which you see only ninja kind of fights. This is also fantasy. The actual fighting scenes might have been laking in movement and expression but it was because the primary focus were the ocult rituals and how Pung Sang, The Monk and Yeori played a game of amulets. It was also the training of the not so almighty god that got trapped in a human body and could not use his powers at its fullest until the very end after consuming the Gargona flowers tea. The more he suffered as a human the more he has grown as a diety. Also who would they phisically battled against? The king of the country that was possesed...the Prince, a child that was possesed... they could not have just gone creazy in swords battles and risk wounding the innocents that were not themselves.
However the Queen death scene left me speechless...they did not even have response time. It was just a pure evil impulse. But the most cruel thing was to see everything from Palcheokwi's eyes...how his entire family was murdered in the name of the former king and nobody cared even for the inocent baby. They were reaped and born to ashes. The queen's Dearh was painfull as she was also pregnant but it felt like some kind of karma for the kids that were sacrificed back then.

The haunted palace really had no boring scene. A bit repetitive in the middle but then it came to its senses.

ACTING: Each and evry character was EXCELLENT. The kids were magnific. We do not get to see children involved in heavy possesion scenes yet the young Prince was fenomenal. I watched the behind the scenes and everybody was just so careing about him. Constantly asking him if he is not scared, If he could do that...and he just played along the adults sometimes as if he was a little adult himself. He had way more scene then expected for a child actor. His character understood not only that he and people around him got possesed. Not only that he needed magical objects to stay safe, but that he needed to cooperate with the adults to save himself and his father. He even had to be present while his mother and sibling were killed. Its very brutal for a child but in the behid the adults were always around him reassuring him its just drama, nothing real. And were very supportive of his developement. Very impressive. Also the little ghost girl stealing shoes to try to go back to her mother...she had an amazing angry ghost kind of scene while being practically tighted to the ceilling yet from the behind I could see she actually enjoyed her time. And the one playing Ga Eon only had 2 scenes in the whole show yet she stoled her fathers spotlight and made a funny ending to rewtach and remember.

The adults were all above expectations. With that much possesions almost every single actor had to shift between personalities. Sungjae had the unforgetable fight between Youn Gap and Gangcheol over the body, Bona was posseed twice or trice and the first time she was allowed to appear as her new personality as well. The king top notch. Constantly shifting between his self and Palcheokwi. And even had some kind of face to face scene with himself. You would believe its a peace of cake to do all that but oh it takes skills. Pung Sang the blind shaman also had to do shifts between his blind self and his shaman and it was a scarry delight to watch. He also had constant shifts between inner personalities. One moment he was sure of himself and of his Commander, one time he felt momentum defeats, one time he felt evely happy for the death of the queen...and his ending almost poetic.
The dowger queen although not possesed had a full range of personalities portreid as well. First she believed herself a justitiary. Then she was a bad mother that lost her only child to the Evil Commander behind Palcheokwi. Then she became like a scared kid for her own life. Then she wanted to make up for her scenes so she has grown up a tone....from confronting the king, the king possesed, Gangcheol the diety , Yeori the shaman. She had no real powers yet she endagered her life to finally save the little prince from the palace. Exqusite.

There were some commic characters amoung all this black mass. Like the Head Eunuch best known as Grilled Abalone. Or Gap's mama. This 2 actors have played togheter in countless dramas trying to put up with the main leads and their own blood pressure simultaneously and this time was not an exception. Grilled Abalone was skeptikal of the imoogi but wanted to be loyal to the king. His loyality was tested when he had to choose not to respind to the kings body being possesed by Palcheokwi and help Yeori perform the mortal ritual instead.

Gap's mama was not a stupid women. She noticed the change in her son and was not completely fooled by Gangcheol. She just like the Queen Dauger had to send her son off the After life and pray for him. Yet she somehow adopted Gangcheol as her son afterwards. And not just because he had her real sons body. But because one of the things the imoogi learned from his human experience is how to have, love and cherish a mother. He took a body that was not his. And even though he was brazen to her, he never let her alone. He saved her when she was kidnapped. He gave her Gap's payments from the palace...with one exception when he bought her a hair pin cause hers was too old...and to Yeori new shoes.

And then there is Yeori...not your usual beautyfull,poorely dressed and usless fl...on the countrary...she was dressed properly throughout the entire show. She was involved in the fantasy part of it, doing all the rituals. She is also a glasses crafter so she can make a living for herself. She was brazen enough to put both Gangheol, and Bibi (dieties) and the King in their places. Throughout the whole show it looked like she was the Commander of the good side. Stop fighting. Start thinking. Lets make a ritual to ask for forgivness, lets find ways to protect the queen, the kind and the price...eather she or the monk came with the most usefull ideas. Her visions were also helpfull in the mission. Even though she could not change the outcome of any of them. And besides the big fight agenst the big fat ghost, she also took responsability for all the other minor ghots lost in the palace. A baby girl that wanted to go back to her mother but could not cause she died. A girl in a fountaine that was raped and killed, the one feet ghost which kept returning precisely to her rival in love...whoever sais Bona's acting was flat should put some glasses on and watch again.

The romance part as it was not a main part of the plot was obviously lacking. They had exactley 2 kisses and I am not even sure we can actually call those proper kisses. In the secound one initiated by her she almost did not glued her lips to his. (Question for the mens here... is it THAT weird to kiss a long time friend? A 16 year old long time friend? Is it more frightening then kissing a random strager? ) This is the thing that pissed me off on this drama. However from her side she just confessed her feeling to a diety that was gelous of the body he was possesing. So almost kissing the air insted of him might be to some extend explicable. 😅 "I want so bad to kiss you but you know I would somehow kiss him so I am doing my best".

And he was just so loovey doovey in the clouds afterwards I really could not. 😂
But they did have some serious romantic tension here and there. It could have been more but again the primary focus was the ocult not the romantic.

I liked the music. Very suitable for each and every moment. I am yet to start listen to the OST properly. But really made the action more enjoyable and not at all boring.

There were some scenes I wish I had scene here and there such as: The conversation between Cangcheol (in his real form) and GOD when he gave him the choice to decide his fate, Yeori actually doing the mortal ritual. In the finale she was already possesed by the death diety so we have seen nothing...also her actual training with the monk. All the time she was with the monk we were given scenes of Changcheol complaining about life as a human them eating a feast to feel better. Like he was funny and all but we had like 15 scenes with him eating. Her training would have been also important in the economy of the story. And perhaps a label saying how long the time leap was in the end. Ga Eon looked around 8 but the transition was too quick. Btw I heared a lot of people complaining about the ending when the ending was shown in ep 1 through Yeori's vision. Back then it was just a matter of is it going to be Gap or Gangcheol? Gap made the choice to leave to the afterlife episodes before the finale so it was obvious. But I would have gotten angry had I not seen Yeori's vision in the end. All her visions good and bad ended up ocuring. Why would her dream not come true?


Well that being said...I absolutely LOVED IT. And recomand it if you like ocult and ghosty kind of stories. Comedy, romance, bromance, good female leads and EXCEPTIONAL young cast.

I do wish to rewatch one day this. It was shokingly fabulous. And both Korean and International public seemed to have loved it.

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BRUTAL RAW MASTERPIECE

SPOILER ALERT
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The idea of the STORY was a plesure to my eyes. I was just comming from watching Squeed Game 2 and was in a clear drama slump. I was told that it was better then SG so I had to see for myself. And yes, the games were defenetly better, more cruel and cinic with gradual dificulties which made it even more intriguing to me. S1 to S2 ep 7 perfection. Episode 8 of season 2 however was the death of me. Half of me felt like it was rushed while the other half of me felt like it was way to much prolongued since it was the largest of the series. 1 hour and 20 min of me trying to deal with my tahicardia. First there were some games rushed there, but I said ok and past that on. The king of spade's game is the main reason why I am not scoring this masterpiece a perfect 10. It was poorley written from my point of view...even before it started. We had Niragi pointing a gun twards Usagi, Arisu pointing a gun twards Niragi and Chisyia playing hero like he was thought in his last game. And just like that 2 perfect functional men were on the ground. Leaving Arisu and Aguni with 4 women to fight agaist the delulu king of spade. Now the girls fighting was amazing, especially Kuina's. But they all ended wounded almost to death because they did not have enough force to fight with the army men. Aguni also ended up wounded on his head like the secound time and yet he perfectly returned from the death to help Arisu with the Bomb. After the girls were made sișkebab. Niragi and Chishya should not have been stupidly wounded by a stupid gun play between of them. Niragi seemed to have pretty good shooting skils that could have been of an imese use during the game. And Chishya could have helped Arisu with the bomb to win time. Or the girls for the metter...wasted screen time for those two. The king was a lunatic that shooted Ann and Heya supposedly to death and then stabbed Kuina in multiple vital places but somehow Usagi was left with wounds just on her legs. Like why? He would have had plenty of time to finish her too. Someting was off with the scene. Though the fighting was pretty good.
After Arisu's bomb, Aguni which onces again dodges death just casually lays on the ground while Heya that was supposed to be death turned out to be just unconsious and when she woked up she went to find him...crawled her way to him more like. Yet he did not went to check on the girls. He just told Arisu that they were all right. Meanwhile Ann looked like she died. And Kuina was bleeding severyly all alone. Not only did Aguni not help the girls but also he let Arisu and Usagi (wounded) to go to the last game alone. And while they were all bleeding out Arisu and Usagi played till the dark came ,croquet with the queen. Now the Queen of hearts game is another story. A good one...but how were the others still alive? Especially Niragi and Chishya that endured the bleeding for the most time? Yeah...makes no sense to me. I was glad that they all survived in the end though.

The queens game...majestic. It showed even more what a gorgerous actor Yamazki is.....TOP NOTCH that boy. How he played the depression, the desperation, the pain...the hope...and most of all the exaustion. God...Give him all Daesangs on earth already!!!

And the ending...loved it. Loved the unexpected. Loved that the things made sense in the end.

Trully a masterpiece. Even though it was brutal, bloody and naked skinny... kind of reminded me of the Saw movies. But this one was better then Saw for me. Because of the characters and the story itself. This had a purpose. Saw...not that much.

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All the genres you can imagine in one buquet of delightfull special effects

I do not have many experience in the CDramas especially historical. I think I have watched meaby 4 xianxia's back to back. So I'll review this based on what I do know.

Where do I start? With the genre of this drama. If you are looking for a time travel meets cdrama meets xianxia world with an OVERDOSE of bold romantic scenes covered in special effects scenes including a 3 dimensional bolding then you have found your madness.

Story: Scenario wise, it was so complex that is was bound to have many plot holes. But what made me keep going was the unexpected bold romance. I WANT MORE. Please recast them again soon. Back to the main issues....in all the previous xianxias that I have watched I was used to the lifetimes being equally divided to the number of episodes. Yet here it was not the case. Which made it more difficult to follow. However I liked the fact that even though the lifetimes were uneven the main leads were developed properly both as individuals and as a couple. The other charaters....oh my.....a pure migrain. Some were made consistent ish. Some were left in the oblivian. Like literally you wonder what happened to them in the end. Some got what they deserved which felt really fullfiling. But a lot of them were completely usless and just to fill in the room and the tension. The emperors of the 8 palaces were another kind of evil....the one that genuinely belives that its good and that its every action its justified and to the common well of everybody involved. Basically polititcians with superpowers and god like aspirations. Some of their actors were amazing. Some of them were stiff as hell and made me simply skip their screen time. There are 3 characters in this show that really deserved more screen time and more consistency. First Ruling/Honglou .... her main purpose was to free her family from the demon relam, but she was abruptly turned from the Celestial Palace assesin into the FL's BFF after tones of betrayels. She then passed not one but TWO lifetimes in a SITIUATIONSHIP with Nianju....that we never knew how it ended because they had to constantely be putted on pause because on of the leads was dieing. About her family its also unclear what happened. Tingyan united the Demon Relam with the Celestial World but still it was no mentione of Ruling's family at all. She was also reborned curiuosely with no memory of her past life and even though both main leads had the capacity to remember things, Honglou did not remember much. The actress is gorgerous and very talented but I feel like she was just used over and over again. Besides she never got her wedding scene. The secound character is Nianju....he appears and dissaperas and you never know his next move. He is loyal to his master, to his lover and to his friend but somtimes he is like a silly kid and does not really know what to do to avoid pissing up the others. He never got a conclusion. After the first life of Tingyan he was used as a walking and flying GPS to find Tingyan's soul while his master played sleeping beauty. After the first life of his master ended he was used again as GPS to find his soul and to solve possible political issues. Any issues that is not his lover cause what do you mean they spended 19 years togheter and he still has not even proposed to her? And the third one is Bi An that was possesd by Yu Yan. She was born with Fengshang blood she was saved by the leads and considered them some kind of godparents. Cause they even named her when she was a baby. Then she grew up (the only character in this drama that actually got older) and was turned into the villan. After Yu Yan was sended into the celestial prison she was just left there on the ground...we never found out if she survived or not, what has she done after getting back her body? Did she died? Did she got reincarnated? Nope....all vanished cause the FL had to turn back to the present. The finale was mega rushed. We do not know what happend to any of the characters in the xianxia world. Sima Jiao's mother? The palace from the mortal relam, the demon relam and the imortal relam....everything vanished into thin air. AND...they messed up big time everything that happened into the modern world. Our FL got into a car accident. And from her flashbacks it looked nasty. She needed CPR (in the rain for dramatic effect), she needed a lot of doctors or nurses with seringes around her cause she was having sessures...and yet when she finally woke up instead of telling us she was in a long coma....nope....she has a concusion. Once she wakes up she can leave. She wakes up. She leaves the hospital. Teleports to her workplace. Takes another taxi even though she just woke up from a prior accident that also happened in a taxi and she believs herself flowerpower and abandones the taxi for the bicicle to make it on time to a meeting god knows where. She did not even had recovery time yet she has to solve everybodys lives AGAIN. She accidentaly meets her prince charming....THE END. Like what? You kept me 33 episodes rolling like Alice in wonderland only to end it up like that? Bruh....

Leaving aside my frustration about the lack of conclusion I actually liked how the action evolved and how the events were linked between each world. We got our modern era girl that travels back in time and into a fictional world in which she has no power and no will to gain any. Her main buisness is to eat, sleep, enjoy vacation time and ocasional 3d bonding with her master. She gradually becomes the most powerfull human being on the 3 relams. Going from Beifang Mountin prison, through the 8 palaces, into the demon world which is her birthplace in the xianxia world, then into the mortal world and then back into the modern present world. Her counterpart Sima Jiao also known as Jiao Jiao goes from being a monster locked in a mountin, to number one political enemy of the palaces, to being a fire god of two of the 3 relams and the Lord of kindness...to being reborn as a mortal king with no cultivation and then as a modern clicheic CEO... a roller coaster indeed. Layered perfectlly between words.

Setting and special effects: VERY MUCH on point. I have never seen a drama with this many settings and such impressive decorations. Also the wordrope worke plus the makeup was HUGE in this project. Like every new location unlocked new kind of clothes and jweleries and even foods. It was like a never ending Chinese Hanfu Parade. Delightfull. Both for women and men. Music was also beautifull and on point. Though I would have liked it better if they had more then 2 OSTs. Like they had so many special effects, so many sets and location for filming a wordrope enough to dress the whole population of China for a ball but only 2 songs?

Production wise I really liked the work done. Especially post production with all those effects that made even the most usless fights a delight to watch. I felt like a kid watching animes for a secound.

And special congrets to whoever was in charge of writeing and directing the romantic scenes in this show. With the kind suggestion of NEVER leaving the secound couple in the oblivian EVER again. Preatty please!

My praise for the main couple of this show. For them I would rewatch this drama someday in the future. They really elevate the rewtach value of this and not just because they were some hopless romantics. But they were GOOD in everything they did. When Jiao Jiao was pissed Artur's face was full of veins pooping out of his forehead. When he was sad, Arthur became kind of sober. When he was happy and loovey doovey, Arthur became snicky and kind of funny. Same for her....she has some beautyfull eyes and face features then made her look diferent then some other chinese actresses that I had scene. She transmits a lot from her eyes. Its like her eyes change togheter with her moods. And she had a wiiiide range of moods in this drama.

Soyi....in conclusion, solid drama having into consideration its magnitude. If I am not wrong the drama started filming in 2023 and ended in 2024. Which means that 2024-2025 alone was post production work. Hats down for how much the entire team behind When destiny brings the demon has worked to achieve this. Nevermind the plotholes....the romance was tooo good, and the effects made it a master peace. Did I mentioned I want more?

P.S Both Arthur Chen and Gao Han are so freaking beautyfull and hot. And the 2 female leads are like 2 princeses. Where have they found this quartet? I laughed so muc with their sillyness... I am going to miss them!!! To all 4 of them....xiexie!! You really got me out of my drama slump.

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